BSP assessing BPI glitch
THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) is still assessing the technical glitch encountered by the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) as it upgraded its systems earlier this month.
“We’re still assessing whether kung hindi ba talaga sila naging (they were not) careful about it when they tried to do the migration,” BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier told reporters in Makati on Tuesday.
“We’re still reviewing what’s the situation. Were there backup plans or can we say mayroon ba talagang (was there really) neglect or what? So iyon ang tinitignan natin (That’s what we are looking at),” Ms. Fonacier said.
BPI underwent a major systems upgrade from April 5-7 — making changes to more than 41,000 programs, lines of codes, and copy books — and advised clients that its services, such as online banking, mobile app, automated teller machines and cash accept machines, as well as debit and prepaid Card services, would be unavailable during that time.
However, the unavailability of BPI’s mobile and online channels extended days beyond the stipulated time for some of its customers.
In a speech last week at the bank’s annual stockholders’ meeting, BPI President and Chief Executive Officer Cezar P. Consing said: “Clearly, this was a challenging exercise and we regret the inconvenience that this caused.”
“Unfortunately, a process that in a test environment took less than a day to complete and had been scheduled for over a full weekend spilled over to the following week, inconveniencing many of our clients,” Mr. Consing explained.
BPI reported a net income of P6.72 billion in the first quarter of 2019, up by 7.6% from the P6.25 billion posted in the same period of the previous year.
